I love this book but wish Penguin would put a bit more effort into a decent binding job. Charging $9.00 for a slim paperback that will often not survive a single reading in the hands of one of my students seems excessively high.

I'm 13, and I read this for school. It's a wonderful parable.
Kino is a poor Indian who lives with his wife, Juana, and his son, Coyotito. They are superstitious people that hears songs, when they experience feelings, like the "song of the family."
The first conflict arises when Coyotito is stung by a scorpion. (Where Kino hears the "Song of Evil) Juana quickly sucks out the poison, but they still take him to the city doctor. The doctor publicly refuses, so Kino goes out to sea to try to find a pearl to pay the doctor with. News soon spreads that he has found the pearl of the world,(Where Kino hears the "Song of the Pearl") but Kino fails top sell it because the pearl buyers have put a ridiculously low price on the pearl. The greedy doctor then visits Kino's hut, even though Coyotito is better. The doctor then tricks Kino and Juana by making the baby worse, then making him quiet.
That night is the first night when people try to steal the pearl. It stirs greed in Kino, though Juana wants to take it back to the ocean. When she tries Kino beats her up, and kills a man that same night. Becuase of that, Kino and his family run away. After a while, three men, one of which who has a rifle, try to find them, and his pearl. At one point, Juana and Coyotit hide in the mountains, while Kino attempts to kill them by creeping up on them. However, he hears the sound of Coyotito crying, which the three men also hear. The man with a rifle assumes it is a baby coyote, and shoots in the direction. Kino, enraged, attacks them.
In the final chapter, you learn that Coyotito's head had been blown apart. Kino and Juana return, but act almost dead.
They then return the pearl, and the "Music of the Pearl" disappears.

I think that it is a very interesting book,though it is short. I would recommend it to people of all ages.

The world portrayed in THE PEARL is that of the helpless, exploited, and disinherited. It portrays the lives of people being forced to live closer to nature than most of us care to, of people who somehow don't fit into the social structure, of people who do not understand the boundaries and rules of governments and nations, and of people forced to be on the run.

Steinbeck paints a beautiful family with hope and joy, but he promptly dashes all hope these people could have. It is a beautiful but dark tragedy written in poetic prose.

The story is a parable with two-dimensional characters. Reading the story, I felt that these events were happening to me. There is a strong sense of universality. THE PEARL shows the best and the worst of humanity, and it displays much of Steinbeck's greatest ability to write.

I give this book one star not because it is depressing or somber - but in virtue of it having a message bordering on something like nihilism. The book is about a man who is presented with sudden wealth, and of the downfall it brings him. Were he a man of already sufficient means who was presented with a fruitful lottery ticket it might be one thing, but what disturbed me about this book was that the protagonist, Kino, is a man of indisputably wretched means who initially is glad to happen across a gargantuan pearl in order that he might provide a better life for his family and rise above the unjust socio-economic caste he's been trapped in his whole life.
But in the end, after the pearl causes terrible greed and destruction to both him and his loved ones, both internally and externally, he tosses it back in the ocean. The general message is clear enough: avoid potential sources of greed and materialism, and be happy with what you've got. Intrinsically, a perfectly sound message.
But again, what is abhorrent about this book is it's about a man who's trying to RISE ABOVE, not gratuitously or materialistically get ahead. Unless to Steinbeck, 'rising above' in Kino's case really is just a subcategory of 'getting ahead' as opposed to 'being content.' If that is the case, that strikes me as a dichotomy unsound on every level. Or perhaps, Steinbeck's message is, or in addition is, 'don't fight the system.' (So, when people treat you like horse dung you just take it, right? Take it lying down, even if it means your children die of starvation or scorpion bites).
If 'don't fight the system' is NOT the message of the book, then Steinbeck should have been more clear about what his message WAS. At best he's a confusing and ambivalent writer. At worst he's a nihilistic, sociologically sick person who can't even make a story enjoyable.

Kino, his wife Juana, and their baby son Coyotito, live a simple life in an ocean-side village in Mexico. Kino pearl-dives for a living. He and his family are native people of the original Aztec stock. Life for them is not perfect, indeed, the injustice of subjugation to the Spanish sometimes burns fierce in their hearts, but much of the time their existance in their small brush hut is sweet. Then one day Kino brings to the surface a huge pearl, a perfect pearl, "the Pearl of the World". This discovery promises many changes to the better, and it seems Kino's every dream will be fulfilled, but as news of the find spreads the forces of evil stir as greed and malice build.

In this novella Steinbeck uses simple language to create some of the atmosphere of a folk-tale. He has, however, combined this atmosphere with the character development and dynamism of plot expected of a modern work. At its worst this book is predictable. Virtually from the start of the story I was able to predict generally how the plot would turn out. Steinbeck's own narration, indeed, more than hints at what the future holds. But the success of this novella is in the working out of the details of the plot. Steinbeck manages to surprise us again and again with dramatic plot twists and exciting developments. I certainly cannot say I was bored by this book. It entertained me, while at the same time making a 'moral' point.